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"GOODBYE TO ALL THAT" 135
vatic stance for his achievements. 2o and the fact that Pindar's literary
output included dirges leads naturally into the next elegy.
In 17 Propertius asserted that only death or wine could free him
from the tyranny of love: from experimenting with wine in 17 he
moves on to death in 18. But Propertius does not here. as he does so
often in other poems. envisage his own death. Instead this elegy is a
consolatio or epikedion for Marcellus. Augustus' possible successor.
who died at Baiae. the fashionable watering place on the Bay of Naples.
By following the Horatian-inspired elegy 17 with a poem that is in
fact devoted to a member of the Augustan gens. it seems that Propertius
is again teasing the reader about the direction he will take. But the
elegy does not, on the whole. devote much space to eulogising the Augustan
gens and its achievements. On the contrary. Propertius rather
focuses on the futility of Marcellus' genus and his connection with the
house of Caesar in the face of the all-consuming fires of death:
quid genus aut virtus aut optima profuit illi
mater. et amplexum Caesaris esse focos?
aut modo tarn pleno fluitantia vela theatro.
et per maternas omnia gesta manus?
occidit. et rnisero steterat vicesimus annus.
How did he benefit from his birth or courage or
His mother's excellence or his union with the house of Caesar
Or the waving awnings of a theatre. recently full.
And all the things his mother's care contrived?
He is dead, his twentieth year the appointed term for him. poor
wretch!
(II-IS)
While it is the case that such lamentations are not untypical in a cansolatio.
21 the true bleakness and negativity of this picture becomes clear
when one compares the lament for Marcellus in Aeneid 6. There. at
least, Virgil devotes more space to eulogising Marcellus' potential in a
series of future statements and unfulfilled conditions. 22 Here any sug-
20 It is at this point in the poem that the echoes of Hor. Carm.3.25 are most
pronounced: haec ego non humili referam memoranda eoturno. "I will recount
such things which are worthy to be recorded in no humble style" in Propertius
3.17.39 echoes Horace's nil parvum aut humili modo. "nothing small or in humble
manner" at 3.25.17. This suggests that this is the real point of the poem. even if. as
Millar (above. n. 16) 79 observes. Propertius' pledge of a Pindaric offering is
somewhat of a fantasy.
21 See P. Fedeli. Praperzio: IJ Libra Terzo delle Elegie (Bari 1985) 553. Compare
Hor. Carm. 1.24.5-12.
22 neepuer Iliaea quisquam de gente Latinos / in tantum spe tollet avos. nee
Romula quondam / ullo se tantum tellus iaetabit alumno ... non Wi se quisquam
impune tuJisset /obvius armato. seu cum pedes iret in hostem. / seu spumantis